Sunday, January 18, 2009

Australian first: brand funded show in top ten

"Brand entertainment just doesn't rate"

Heard that before?

On Sunday, the 100% brand funded TV program King Gee Jack of all Trades broke into the top ten programs.

Sunday All People Top 20
1 Nine News Nine 1,397,000
2 Seven News Seven 1,339,000
3 One Day Cricket Aust V SA Game 2 Session 2 Nine 1,285,000
4 20 To 1 (R) Nine 1,216,000
5 Two And A Half Men (R) Nine 1,116,000
6 Flashpoint Nine 1,112,000
7 Hot Property Seven 1,068,000
8 Jack Of All Trades Nine 1,043,000
9 The Mentalist (R) Nine 960,000
10 The Rich List Seven 951,000
11 Eye For An Elephant ABC1 943,000
12 The Big Bang Theory Nine 929,000
13 Outback Wildlife Rescue Seven 901,000
14 One Day Cricket Aust V SA Game 2 Session 1 Nine 851,000
15 ABC News ABC1 782,000
16 Cold Case (R) Nine 762,000
17 M: Nine Months Seven 756,000
18 ABC News Up-Date ABC1 747,000
19 About A Boy (R) Ten 562,000
20 Bad News Bears Ten 529,000


Source: OzTAM. Rankings are for metro average audiences.


This is the highest ratings result achieved by a brand funded program in this market.

A kind of
Australian Idol meets Backyard Blitz, the program pits four Aussie tradies against each other in a contest to find the greatest tradie in the land.

King Gee Jack of all Trades is produced by Brand New Media and is now in its third series on Network Nine.

So who says brand entertainment doesn't rate?


*Brand New Media is part owner of Stickywood

7 comments:

Daniel Oyston said...

Kate, what do you make of the fact that the show sits between the two sessions of the cricket?

I saw parts of the King Gee show but only because I didn't change channels in the cricket break and was waiting for the cricket to come back on.

Maybe that is part of the strategy?

Kate Richardson said...

@Daniel,

You're right, I think the placement played a big role, but from what I can see from figures, the audience increased when Jack of all Trades came on, and declined when it finished.

In any case people often dismiss brands as not being capable of creating entertainment people want to watch and this proves otherwise.

I was reflecting on this post overnight. One the one hand, it feels like a moment in time because it's been such a tough road in terms of exciting and educating people about the potential of this space. So I felt really excited yesterday.

On the other hand, I wonder if it's a hollow victory. It feels late in the day to be waving the flag when things are moving so fast, and television networks are still a way behind.

You know what, I'm going to see this as a positive win.

Nudge Marketing said...

Aside from the fact that Oztam's rating system is a joke, I think this says a lot about whats actually on television these days and the demographic thats still watching..

Kate Richardson said...

@Nudge, sadly, you're right. I've just written a little piece for B&T which talks very much to that point.

Cricket is a crowd pleaser, and no doubt a transition from that, to a blokes based reality show was an easy one for a lot of sports fans to make.

Daniel Oyston said...

@Kate, I read that list as the number increased after Jack of all Trades ...

Regardless, maybe there is something in the "marriage" of the positioning that helps both shows. In marriage I mean the point you made about blokes shows being positioned with other blokes shows (of sorts).

Anonymous said...

I have lost track of how ratings are done these days and I know you should not ever be a market survey of one but I've been talking to friends and none of us ever watch TV that's not time shifted. I never see TV commercials unless I go to YouTube and look for professional purposes. None of my kids would have seen at TV commercial in at least a year. They download everything.

However TV numbers seem to hold up well and I actually don't really believe them at all. I think more TV is being consumed but it's being bought on DVD, downloaded or time shifted. The interactive industry is still playing second fiddle to TV and I'm sure it should not be. Anyone have any specific insights.

Anonymous said...

Its a shame that Brand New Media aren't paying their bills for the lead up events for this program. Bringing in the Administrators, not paying the bills but keeping the show going.